The Troubling Case Against Kevin Cooper

- You've been with us for the two decades

“that we've investigated the case of Kevin Cooper,”

the California death row in May

who has always professed his innocence.

Tonight, there are new developments that may help Cooper in his bid for freedom. (upbeat music) - Our investigation began with letters from San Quentin Prison,

outside San Francisco. - I'm Kelly Cooper, I want death row. - He claimed he had been framed for the murder of four people. (upbeat music)

- It was a terrible home invasion, in Chino Hill's California, when night in 1983, family of four with a young boy who is overnight guest.

- Authorities say more than one weapon was used in the brutal murder.

- Four of them died, one survived,

even though his throat had been cut. - Did you have some injuries? - Yeah.

“- My throat was slashed, got stabbed here.”

Hit my anax here, screw driver, puncture my back, find long, broke three ribs. - The authorities then arrested and sentenced to death, a young black man, a name Kevin Cooper for the crime.

- This occurred in a upper middle class neighborhood course country, finding somebody to pin it on was very important. And Kevin Cooper was a convenient person to pin it on. The problem was they didn't have the evidence.

- There is enormous amount of evidence that suggests three or four white perpetrators. - I'm Tom Parker, I'm a retired FBI agent. I was brought into this case at the request of the leader attorney,

the more I dug into it, I began to realize that there was something seriously wrong with the case. - You believe that evidence was planted and tampered with. - I don't believe that I know that.

It's funny. - It's very hard for the system to try to correct a mistake. - That was quite mockingly. - I think they got the wrong guy. - But the state says it's case closed.

- I am a hundred percent certain Kevin Cooper committed these murders. - But we'll get every case. - Everything that keeps me gold is affected on the one condition. - He's got a lot of people pulling for him,

not only within the prison outside. We've been trying to get this evidence tested over the last 15 years I've been working in the case

and we've always been refused.

- In 2018, Kevin Cooper got his wish. California's governor ordered new DNA tests. But what did they reveal about Cooper's case? - I was worried that there wouldn't be a lot of good data that could be obtained.

- We've had the DNA testing, we do have a profile. It's certainly not Kevin. - The murder victims were all mutilated. - It was a massacre. - There were a close-knit family of four,

the Ryan's own and bloody. - Authorities are completely baffled by the school. - And more than three decades ago, it shattered the upscale horse community known as Chino Hills in southern California.

- We have evidence that places Kevin Cooper at the crime scene. - Many wonder back then if the right man had been convicted for the crime and even more wonder today

if the real killers got away. - I found the color of my sister on this one. In my five one, over 12. On June 4th, 1983, Peggy Ryan, her husband dug and their 10-year-old daughter Jessica,

were stabbed and slashed to death inside their home. And 11-year-old neighbor spending the night Christopher Hughes also lost his life. - Here's the first DNA. This is one, seven, six, seven, a life.

- The only one who miraculously lived through that night was Josh Ryan, then eight and a half years old. - I spoke to him in 2003.

“What does something like this do to a person's life?”

- Changes their life. You lose somebody in it, it hurts. - There was strong evidence pointing to multiple assailants. A bloody hatchet was discovered near the Ryan's Arabian horse ranch.

Investigators believed it was just one of three weapons used and according to the coroner, the victims had some 140 wounds. - The Ryan's family car is missing and presumed taken by the murder suspects.

- It's a 1977 Buick Ford or Stationwagon. - Neighbors reported they saw three people drive away in a car that looked like it

Also indicated that there were three attackers when he was questioned by a deputy.

“- When we got to the point of asking him how many people were there,”

I went one, two, three and he squeezed my hand. - Three people, when things went crazy. - Right. - Josh thought the attackers were white or Mexican men and yet police soon zeroed in on this one man, Kevin Cooper.

- The prime suspect, a scape prisoner, Kevin Cooper is still at large. - Cooper was a career burglar who to scape from prison and was on the run. - He had been hiding out at a vacant house near the Ryan home

before the murders. Authorities believed he killed the Ryan's to steal their car. A hatchet was reported missing from the house where Cooper had been hiding. A hatchet sheet was later recovered there.

- The huge manhood was finally over

with Cooper being slain up to evade them for months. - These people say California versus Kevin Cooper. By the time Cooper went on trial, the memory of the only eyewitness, Josh Ryan, then 10 had changed.

- This is Sunday, December 9th 1984.

“- The district attorney at the time, Dennis Copmeyer,”

question Josh. - What did you see? - I don't know, but I'm sorry, I was like the shadows. - He no longer remembered three attackers. - How many shadows did you see?

- This one. - Just the one. - We the jury of the above entitled cars, determined that the penalty shall be dead. - Kevin Cooper was convicted and condemned to die.

Although he told the jury then, what he later told me that he was innocent. - Why should someone believe you Kevin? - I'm gonna ask if anyone believes me. I'm asking people who get the evidence.

- And the evidence does raise questions. Cooper's fingerprints weren't found anywhere at the crime scene. Neither were any of his hairs. But there were strands of light colored hairs found clutched in Jessica Ryan's hand.

Her grandmother Mary Howell. - When I saw that little hand, 'cause she must have fought terribly. - And there were those multiple weapons

“that authorities say were used in the attack.”

How could one man wield at least three weapons? - I still can't believe that one person could do all that to my family. There's five of them. And I just know that they didn't stand in line saying,

"I'm next." - The scene was incredibly bloody. There was spatter all over the walls. And yet the state's expert said he found only one single drop of blood that matched Cooper's blood type.

It is on the tiny paint chip seen here in this evidence photo. - A man walking his dog spotted the Ryan carnage church parking lot yesterday morning. And then there's the stolen family station wagon.

- Police eagerly searched the car for clues. - Blood was found in the car. But if Kevin Cooper used it to get away, why was the blood found on three seats? Not one.

- I need to. - Mary Howell believed there had to be more than one killer. - If somebody's out there that thinks that maybe Josh couldn't identify him, if they went after Josh that'd go after me too,

but I'm concerned, I'm a protective grandmother.

- After our first report on Cooper's case aired,

the state agreed to conduct DNA tests. There wasn't enough DNA in the hairs, but cigarette butts found in the car, a tan t-shirt found near the scene, and that tiny blood stain paint chip

were all sent to the lab. In 2002, the results came in. And no one seemed more shocked than Cooper. The evidence tested positive for his DNA. - It was devastating.

I mean, I'm not gonna let you. I thought I was going to walk off the door. - Cooper was convinced that somehow investigators had tampered with and planted the evidence, but who would believe him, not Josh Ryan.

- It's time to face it. The DNA is pointing to Kevin Cooper.

- So he was there, he needs to pay first crime.

So we have closure. - Christopher uses mother agreed, but Josh's loving and protective grandmother didn't see it that way. - I haven't changed my opinions at all.

I still have looking for the truth. I feel the killers are still out there somewhere. - Kevin Cooper was scheduled to die by lethal injection on February 10, 2004, which you'll watch him die. - Yes.

- You would need to do that? - Yes.

- If Kevin Cooper is executed,

“you believe that they'll be killing an innocent man.”

- Yes, I do. (singing in foreign language) - February 10, 2004, Kevin Cooper's date with death was set. And then with just hours to go. - The execution that was supposed to happen a few hours ago

is now on hold. A surprise ruling late tonight that state is execution and stunned just about everybody. - The night circuit federal appellate court stepped in and saved Cooper's life.

He later described that moment to me. How close did you come? - I came with this three hours of water to minutes of being stabbed out today, going, and physically torture with lethal poison.

- After the court stayed his execution, a turning Norman Hio working pro bono, joined Cooper's defense.

“- I think Kevin is innocent and I also think”

that he was the victim of a horribly racist prosecution. And I just don't give up. - Hio fought to get Cooper a new trial. For years, he petitioned court after court, but the boxes of legal documents continued to pile up.

And that was her hairdo at that time. - Mary Howell still refused to say it was over. - Everybody knows that I want to know the truth. Why my family was killed? Who did it?

Why? And I don't want to die without knowing it. - Sadly, the 93-year-old grandmother

never got the answer she hoped for.

- Love you grandma. - In 2008, Mary Howell died. - Kevin Cooper had been on death row for 23 years.

“One year later, Cooper finally got a break.”

His case was back in front of the night circuit court with 27 judges. While the majority refused to review his case, 11 of them disagreed. - There is not a single case in U.S. history

where 11 of pellet judges said that they felt that the person had not gotten a fair hearing. - One judge, William Flutter, wrote in a scathing 100-page dissent. The state of California may be about to execute an innocent man.

And there is substantial evidence that three white men, rather than Cooper, were the killers. - Please join me in welcoming Judge Flutter of the 9th Circuit. - In a lecture, he pointed to contradictions in the only survivor's account.

Josh Ryan first indicated the assailants were three white or Mexican men. By trial. - I don't believe that you saw all of the shadows. - His story was different.

- How many shadows did you see? - Just one. - Just the one. - Judge Flutter believes Josh's memory was influenced by a deputy who had visited Josh

approximately 20 times during the hospital stay. - The deputy got Josh to change the story so that he no longer said three or four white men did it.

- The judge also noted, Josh never identified Kevin Cooper.

- During his stay in the hospital, Josh twice saw a picture of Cooper on television. Both times, he said Cooper was not one of the killers. - It's what Cooper's lawyers have been saying all along. - As soon as they identified Kevin Cooper,

a black escaped prisoner in the house down the hill from the Ryan's. They stopped looking for those people and focused entirely on proving that Kevin Cooper had killed the Ryan's.

- He did the attack with hatchet blows to the head of Kevin Cooper. - Judge Flutter also questions that key piece of evidence in this case that tiny drop of blood the state says

proves Kevin Cooper was inside the Ryan home.

At first, the criminal said it was one blood type,

and later he said it was another. - When he found out that he'd put the wrong blood type down and he had not matched at the Kevin, he changed his notes to say it was the same blood type as Kevin's. - The judge says the criminal is altered his lab notes

and claimed that he had misinterpreted his results.

Remember those cigarette butts found in the Ryan station wagon?

“Defense attorney Norman Hile believes they came”

from the homework Cooper had been hiding out. - When they found the Ryan station wagon, they planted those two cigarette butts. - Those butts weren't found until sheriff's deputies

did a second search of the car, and according to Hile,

one of the butts inexplicably grew from one test to another. - The previous tested cigarette butt was four millimeters long, and the one in 2002 was seven millimeters long. - Judge Fletcher says deputies discounted, disregarded, and discarded evidence pointing to other killers.

Like evidence provided by this woman, Diana Roper. Days after the murders, she called the sheriff's office after she found bloody coveralls left in her closet. I tried to tell him, "Hey, this house to do with the channel murder." - She said they belonged to her ex-boyfriend,

a parole killer by the name of Lee Furrow. Furrow had murdered 17-year-old Mary Sue Kits on the orders of a gang leader.

“He strangled her and threw her off a bridge in a river.”

Just an evil, evil person. Roper said she told investigators that Furrow also owned a hatchet that looked like the weapon used on the Ryan's and Christopher Hughes. Well, he kept all this tools on the back porch hanging on nails.

And as soon as I said, I walked back there in his hatchet because there was only a thing missing. And she said that on the day of the murders, Furrow was wearing a t-shirt. It was like a beige, light brown colored beige.

A t-shirt was found down the road from the Ryan's home, not far from the canyon-crow bar. That's significant because on the night of the murders, three white men were seen in that bar. One of them in a light colored t-shirt

and another in-bloody cover-all. I realized that that's the time that he was just covered in blood, spattered in blood. Christine Sloaniker and Mary Wolf were in the bar, spoke to us in 2004.

- It was spotted, you had a light colored shirt on, so it was, you know, it showed, really, I mean, it showed up. It was even though the bar was a real dark, you could still see it.

- When you first heard that the Ryan's been murdered,

what was your first thought? - The guys in the bar. - Diana Roper died three years after we interviewed her. The bloody cover-all she turned over to the authorities were never tested.

Instead, a deputy threw them out before Cooper's trial. This disposition report shows the cover-alls were destroyed and described as having no value. - I don't know that that happened. - That did happen.

When we spoke with Floyd Tidwell, who was sheriff at the time of the murders, he didn't seem to know anything about it. - But doesn't that concern you that maybe not all the evidence was available?

- I can't, I can't be concerned unless I know about it. - But it was something that happened when you were sheriff, it was just sheriff's crime. - Let's bring this to a scream and halt right here, okay? That's enough of that crap.

- Kevin Cooper believes the cover-alls could have helped his case. And so does Judge Fletcher. - The bloody overalls were to say the least and convenient, so the deputy's through them away.

Kevin Cooper, the man now sitting on death rope, may well be, and in my view probably is, innocent. - Doesn't that give you pause? Does it that make you feel

“that you have to do whatever you can to make sure”

that the right person's being executed? - The right person is being executed. - Former District Attorney Michael Ramos in Herodig, Cooper's case in 2003. - It doesn't give me pause at all

because you're talking about his sending judge up the Ninth Circuit, judges court of appeals. And which is with all due respect, a very liberal circuit, the majority of opinion was not only guilty, overwhelmingly guilty.

- The Second World War is the largest event

in human history. - A 20-part series with Tom Hanks. - No part of the globe was untouched, no life unchanged. - Experience the ultimate account of World War II. - Every single person had a story.

- These are the stories that make us who we are. - Listen to World War II with Tom Hanks on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. - By 2010, Kevin Cooper, 52 years old, had been on death row nearly half his life.

His appeals had run out.

- I'm Nicholas Christoph, I write off that columns for the New York Times. - What caught Christoph's attention was Judge William Fletcher's descent.

- I had never read an opinion like this

of respected circuit court judge, arguing that somebody on death row had been framed. - Christoph is a Pulitzer Prize winning writer, covering genocide and human rights issues. And there was something about Kevin Cooper's case

that struck a chord. - The prosecutor's kind of seized upon him as, you know, he's sent by central casting. He looks the part that people had in their minds for a ruthless killer.

And then, it's particularly problematic when a black person is charged with the killings of white people.

“And I think that made it a lot harder for Kevin Cooper”

to be tried fairly for this crime. - Christoph and a team from the New York Times closely examined the evidence the state said tested positive for Cooper's blood in 2002. The tiny bloodstain paint chip and the tante shirt.

Christoph's conclusion, you believe, as you're saying here right now, that there was evidence planted. - I believe that there was evidence planted. - But if that's true, how did Cooper's DNA get on those items?

- Defense attorney Norman Hile has a theory. - When Kevin Cooper was arrested, they took blood from him. And that's the blood that they could have used. - And according to court documents,

before the DNA tests were done, this glassing envelope, which contained the paint chip, was checked out overnight, signed out to the same criminalist who had matched the blood on it to Cooper. His reason, he said it was to assure

there was enough evidence to test. - Kevin, what do you believe happened when he took out the single drop of blood that they say connects you to the case? - I think he took either, boss of lava,

or blinding him, or something in there, he aired out for 24 hours,

and he always saw it and gave it

when you opened the container. - And the date is on there. You know, I've seen the picture. - And so that means he opened the grid so that he could open the board.

- As for the t-shirt, a judge who held a hearing on evidence tampering after the DNA tests determined that the shirt had not been checked out or looked at by anyone prior to DNA testing.

But that's not accurate. The state showed us the t-shirt a year before the DNA tests were done when we first started looking at the case.

“- Can you turn around and hold it though, right now?”

- If you were going to test this shirt here, you would test it for what? - To see if there's any DNA there that can be tested. - Later, the defense discovered something alarming about that vial of Cooper's blood

the state had taken for evidence. It was tangent. - The vial that contains Kevin Cooper's blood has a second undidentified person's DNA on it. - Chrisoff believes there's a suspicious pattern

in Cooper's case. - I think this is unusual in the enormous amount of evidence that suggests that Kevin Cooper was framed. The way consistently a place would be searched, no evidence would be found.

And then, once they knew they were looking at Kevin Cooper, then they would search again,

and Edward Cadabra, they would find critical evidence

that they needed against him. - Former district attorney Michael Ramos says, claims of evidence tampering have been dismissed by both state and federal courts. - As far as planning evidence,

that's absolutely impossible. There was no evidence tampering at all. - And yet, after Cooper's conviction, key people who had worked on the case got in trouble with the law.

Prime Lab director William Beard resigned amid allegations of stealing heroin from the property locker. - Sheriff Lloyd Tidwell was charged with a felony. - Floyd Tidwell was found out to have been

taking guns that the Sheriff's Department deputies took from people during their normal police activities and he sold them. - That's the same Sheriff Tidwell who did want to answer our questions

about destroying evidence.

“- Let's bring this to a scream and halt right here, okay?”

- It does raise questions about the caliber or the work that was being done by the Sheriff's Office. - Both Cooper's defense team and Nicholas Christoff called for new DNA testing and got a huge response

Kim Kardashian West sent out this tweet.

“Governor Brown, can you please test the DNA of Kevin Cooper?”

- And what was your reaction when she actually went on social media saying you deserve to get testing? - It's very thankful that she cured enough for took the time out of her busy life to do that. - I understand even the Pope.

- It's holy. - It's holy. - Yeah, how great is that? - You saw the article written by Nicholas Christoff. - Right.

- Is he wrong? - Absolutely wrong. And I wish that he would have taken the time to go over the evidence. The evidence it was presented at the trial.

The evidence it was presented to the pellet court, the federal proceedings. I truly believe that he didn't do his homework before writing that one-sided, very one-sided story.

“- So if you disagree with my conclusions,”

then test the evidence. The best response if you don't like my argument is to prove me wrong with the evidence that it is sitting in lockers and has been for 35 years. - The defense believes new tests will connect

someone else to the murders. But they'll need the power of California's governor to make it happen. - That's him. Kevin Cooper's lawyers have long believed

Lee Furrow was involved in the murders of the Ryan family and Christopher Hughes. When we found him in 2000, we fixed your hand. Furrow had moved cross-country to Pennsylvania.

- Here I am, and I'm willing to talk to anybody about it. - Furrow was a known killer. He had murdered that 17-year-old almost a decade before the Chino Hills massacre. - Can I ask you a point-blank?

Did you kill the Ryan family? - No, I did not. - Or Christopher Hughes? - No, I did not. I had nothing to do with India this.

- I asked Furrow about those bloody coveralls that his ex-girlfriend gave to authorities.

- I never had any coveralls.

- Furrow said that at the time of the murders, he had been at a concert. Former San Bernardino district attorney, Michael Ramos. - He was 30 plus miles away from the crime scene when this murder occurred.

- In 2018, Furrow agreed to give Cooper's team a sample of his DNA.

“- Were he surprised that he was just willing to hand over his DNA?”

- I was astonished that he would be willing to do that. - Defense investigator and retired FBI agent Tom Parker. - And I asked him why. And he said he really had nothing to hide. - Furrow was seen here with a relative at a meeting

that was secretly recorded by investigator Parker. - So, I wouldn't mind open out your mouth. - Furrow was willing to give his saliva, but not his blood. - I'm not doing blood to work, and up on evidence, like not whatever they did to Tom Parker.

- We never had a tan t-shirt.

- I know, I know, I know. It's not what you have, I know, I know, I know. - Well, DNA's got false, even 35 years later, those skin cells are still going to be good. - We went back to Furrow's door again in January 2019.

This time he wouldn't talk to us. While the defense team pushed for new DNA tests, the only survivor of the massacre was pushing back. Josh Ryan doesn't think any more DNA tests are needed to determine who killed his family in 1983.

In a letter to Governor Brown, Josh wrote, Kevin Cooper is on my mind every day. He's a nightmare which plays over and over in my head. I can never get away from him. Christopher uses mother, Mary Ann, agrees.

- There's just no doubt that Kevin Cooper was the one and only killer and they need to carry out the sentence that he was given. But Cooper, facing death, still insists he's innocent. - Why can't I take responsibility for motives

that I did not commit? - Then, in December 2018, Cooper got a surprise. - Two weeks before leaving office, Governor Jerry Brown tonight has issued an executive order directing DNA testing, be carried out in one of the most

shocking and brutal murder cases in Southern County. - How did you hear about it? - Well, I found out about it all Christmas morning. When I was watching the other news. - The governor's order allowed only four items to be tested.

that was found next to it, and the hatchet sheet

discovered in the house where Cooper was hiding. - I'm just trying to say, "Well, I'm also skeptical."

“- So are these DNA tests really a matter of life or death?”

- They are for Mr. Cooper for sure. - But then, just two months later, Cooper got more good news. The new governor of California, Gavin Newsom, ordered more testing, including that vial of Cooper's blood.

Why do you think that Governor Newsom so quickly added the number of tests? - Well, I like to think that it's because he saw in the clemency petition that there was a significant doubt about whether Kevin Cooper was guilty.

- Newsom also suspended executions in California. San Quentin's lethal injection facility was dismantled and hauled out of the prison. The Kevin Cooper remains on death row.

- I'm finally getting to meet Kevin Cooper face-to-face

after all these years. - In 2019, I went to San Quentin prison with a turning Norman Hile. It's the first time I had seen Kevin Cooper in person. We were not allowed to record the visit,

but we talked for hours. Even after all this time, Cooper is confident he will eventually walk out of free man. The fact that he now could have so much of this evidence tested, do you see a difference in Kevin?

“- I think he's very cautious about trying to predict”

what's going to happen and trying to get too optimistic. We're worried that something nefarious could happen and that the testing will not show his innocence.

- Kim Kardashian West also went to say Cooper

and she shared her visit with her millions of followers. - She just didn't get on board, just didn't get on board. She paid her research for people who look up the evidence. They say, "Oh hell, no, this guy didn't do that." Thomas has told you you need to do it.

Are you going to do this? Look at everything, I'll put everything together. And that's what she did. - Cooper continues to wait for the test results, but his team says they're not relying on that.

They have new information, they say, that has nothing to do with DNA. - We have three people who have testified under oath

“in a form of a declaration that leave our all confessed to them.”

(gentle music) - Kevin Cooper is 63 years old. He's now been on San Quentin's death row for more than half his life. - I've known his death side care despite my situation.

I'm strong, mentally, emotionally, psychologically, and physically, and I continue to fight. - It's been one disappointment after another in his bid to prove his innocence and after a year of DNA testing,

more disappointment. - The evidence was collected years and years and years ago. Defense Attorney Bica Barlow, a DNA specialist, says the test confirmed her biggest fear that the DNA is too degraded for even modern testing.

- At the time, evidence wasn't handled very well. It wasn't stored well. - This is the T-shirt. - Do you know as you're sitting here today who was wearing that T-shirt?

- No. - And why not? We know that this T-shirt was used in these murders. Why don't we know who was wearing it? - We don't know for lots of reasons,

but the DNA testing didn't tell us anything. - The lab was unable to find even one full DNA profile anywhere on the T-shirt that could be matched to a wearer. - I'm sure for Kevin Cooper, it's incredibly disappointing. He's been asking to test this for years and years and years

and maybe we would have gotten different results 10 years ago or 20 years ago. But that's not what happened. - It was much the same story for most of the other evidence.

Testing was done on the hatchet, the hatchet chief, the fingernail scraping's from the victims, and we got no conclusive results. - So this is the orange towel found with the T-shirt. - They had better luck with that orange towel.

The one believed to have been taken from the Ryan home, a full DNA profile was found on the towel. - We have a single male profile that is not Kevin Cooper's. - Barlow says the profile doesn't match Cooper

It was uploaded into Cotus a national database

of known offenders, but again, there was no match. - To be honest, this is a towel inside a family home. It could be a full profile as somebody was visiting the Ryan's. - It could be all sorts of people. - All of that blood had to go somewhere.

- There was one unexpected and disturbing discovery made during the testing. You look at all of these blood vials and they all have a substantial amount of blood in them. - But the vile that is contained Kevin Cooper's blood

since he was arrested in 1983 is empty to have an entire vile disappear like that. - Raises all sorts of questions in my mind. - I can't understand how all of that blood could have been consumed in testing.

- And we need to say questions. What do you mean by that? - I don't know what to think. I know my questions are, where did the blood go?

“Was it taken out deliberately and placed someplace else?”

There's so much evidence of bad behavior by the police in this investigation that frankly it wouldn't surprise me if somebody took blood from that vile and dropped it on things.

- Cooper has always claimed

that his blood had been planted on evidence. - If you look at what we have so far, Kevin has not tied to these crimes through any of this testing. - Even without DNA tests that definitively

tied someone else to the murders, Hiles says he now has other evidence that does. The team found five new witnesses who connect Lee Furrow to the crime. - We have found witnesses that in one case,

Lee Furrow confessed to shortly after the murders, gave a detailed confession to this individual who I'm sure he never would've believed whatever go to the police. - Two of those witnesses came forward

after they watched our broadcast.

For now, they want to remain anonymous.

What makes you believe these men are credible?

“I mean, how do you know they might not have a beef with him?”

- Obviously, you don't take confessions just at face to how you dig into them. They're backgrounds or such that contribute to their credibility. - One witness vividly recalled Furrow's saying,

we butchered all of them and another witness gave details about Furrow's alleged accomplices that are shocking. - Was a surprise, quite frankly. - Defense investigator Tom Parker.

We have statements from people that there were two women involved on this killing team along with Lee Furrow. - Doesn't that contradict the witnesses that can you grab bar?

They all said it was three men. - Yeah, I've been told that at least one of the women could be mistaken for a man based on the clothing that was being worn. - Both women, named by the new witnesses,

did hang out with Lee Furrow. Hyal says he and his team are following this lead. - Fewer than one out of five cases are solved by DNA testing. There's a lot of other ways in which people are exonerated,

a lot of other ways in which the truth emerges. - Cooper's defense team asked actually pleaded with Governor Newsom to go beyond DNA tests and take a fresh look at Cooper's claims that evidence have been tampered with and planted.

In this 152-page petition, they made a case for a full innocence investigation.

“- Does this feel like a really tough uphill battle?”

- Always has. - A Cooper is not giving up hope. - He is a very strong person and he is somebody who believes in the truth and is willing to fight for it. - I cannot give up, I will not give up.

- In 2021, Governor Gavin Newsom ordered an independent investigation into the Cooper case. It was set up to examine his trial, his appeals, and quote all available evidence, including DNA tests done after the trial.

This special counsel released a report in 2023, rejecting Cooper's claims of innocence. - Sunday, June 14, Paramount Plus, pre-sense at night for the ages, live at the White House. - UFC stars don't come bigger than this.

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